Week 23 May 18 - 24 2014

Another week……. full with endless possibilities……….Sunday morning the weather looked good for a sail to Isla Culebrita which was only 7nm from Ensenada Honda and it would be a good place to “stage” our next “big” sail across to the BVI’s on Monday.

We knew it was best to get boat clearance from Puerto Rico as there are quite a few places that insist on you having clearance from your previous ports of call before you are given clearance into their country. Mel and I went off to the airport which was just a short walk from the dinghy dock and got clearance out of Puerto Rico. You are given 24 hours to clear in and out of a country. We knew that we would be on our way to the BVI’s the following morning bright and early.

We had a good sail to Isla Culebrita arriving just before 12.00. We took one of the free mooring balls that were available as we knew that there was a possibility of some swell.

Isla Culebrita is a very popular day spot for the locals and one could see why. It is quite beautiful! Smaller than Playa Flamenco but even more beautiful if that is possible.

We walked to the Jacuzzi, which is a lovely pool of water in amongst the rocks that face out to the sea but it is obviously very sheltered. We had a quick refreshing swim. (Camera battery was flat – not very good planning)

We attempted to walk to the Lighthouse but didn’t know which path to choose – we tried both but none seemed to go towards the Lighthouse, only away from it. We saw some hermit crabs along the way.

Mel snorkelled to the reef that was “close” to our boat, while I sat on deck and admired the lovely scenery – I saw two turtles.

After a rolly but bearable night we were up and away by 6.00am heading for the BVI’s.

Once again everything started off well and we were making good progress, tacking along but then as we were passing the USVI’s, there was a north ocean swell, with a SE wind driven chop which started making things quite uncomfortable. We are so sick of this easting and are looking forward to some good sailing days!

After about 4 hours of sailing we motor sailed as we were getting nowhere – when we got caught between the north ocean swell and the SE wind driven chop, our speed just disappeared and we seemed to come to a total standstill.

We were heading for Jost Van Dyke, Great Habour - is an entry port for the BVI’s.

A bit of history about the BVI’s…” in 1493 on Christopher Columbus’s second voyage to the New World, he came across dozens of untouched islands which he named “Las Once Mil Virgenes” after the legendary St Ursula and the 11,000 virgins.

When Christopher Columbus arrived, he did not encounter the first inhabitants who were believed to be Amerindian tribes from Venezuela several hundred years earlier. This perhaps was due to the fact that they all died out or moved on.” (Information taken from ‘The Welcome – Guide to the British Virgin Islands)

The BVI’s are officially called the Virgin Islands but are referred to as the BVI’s to distinguish themselves from the USVI’s

The BVI’s are a territory of Britain but they are largely autonomous.

It is 59 square miles and has over 50 islands, islets and cays – many are uninhabited. There are four main islands – Tortola – Road Town is the capital city, Virgin Gorda, Anegada and Jost Van Dyke.

As for Jost Van Dyke …… Legend has it that the island was named after a Dutch pirate but it was probably named after one of the planters from Holland who owned and settled on the island in the late 1600’s.

Information taken from a “Yachtsman’s Guide to the Virgin Islands” pg131 edition no 13

“In the 1700’s, Dutch settlers were followed by Englishmen who built sugar and cotton plantations. A community of Quakers also established itself by the mid 1700’s. One of the members of the Quaker congregation was John Coakley Lettsom. His family owned sugar plantations on Little Jost Van Dyke (one of the other smaller islands close by) and near Cane Garden Bay which is on Tortola. He went back to England to learn medicine and returned to Jost Van Dyke in 1767 after the death of his father. He took over the family’s land, freed all of the slaves of the estate. He later returned to England where he became the foremost physician of the times and founder of the Medical Society of London. He was a popular and well known persona and he would often write this poem:

I John Lettsom

Blisters bleeds and sweats ‘em

If in spite of this they die

I John Lettsom

 

When the plantations failed and their owners left the island, the people who remained turned to fishing, charcoal production or smuggling. At one time Jost Van Dyke served as a bootlegging station during Prohibition due to its close proximity to St Thomas, USVI.”

Back to the present…….We arrived at Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke by 3.30pm. In the BVI’s, there are very few places to anchor as many great anchoring places have been taken up with mooring balls. The BVI’s like the USVI’s is a very popular boat chartering destination. It is a bone of contention for many as the price of a mooring ball is US$30 a day!! Unfortunately in many places we have NO choice. Anyway after taking up a mooring ball, Mel went straight to the Customs and Immigrations. By 4.30pm we were all “legal” and we went for a walk along the beach at Great Harbour.

Jost Van Dyke has a few very popular restaurants where people in their chartered boats will just sail to Jost Van Dyke just to have a drink or meal at one of these places.

In Great Harbour, Foxy’s is one of these extremely popular destinations while just round the corner in White Bay is the Soggy Dollar Bar. The bakery at Great Harbour – Christine’s,  is also very popular and of course Mel and I had to buy some nice fresh muffins from there for our afternoon tea (rather late tea).

Tuesday was a day of exploring these places/restaurants of interest – just to see why the “credit card captains” as the chartered boat people are referred to, just sail in, take a mooring ball for a while then sail out again.

We had breakfast at Ali Baba’s, walked around “town” – this is just one street along the beach, then went back to the boat before heading to White Bay in the dinghy.

It took us just under 10 mins to get to White Bay and what a sight! Boats anchored literally on top of each other just so they can get as close to the Soggy Dollar Bar as possible! It seemed like organised chaos!

Boats came rushing in from the USVI, off loaded their cargo of people onto the beach. The people

then rushed to the Soggy Dollar Bar to have its well known drink called “the Painkiller”.

Of course Mel had to have one – I had a taste of it and I hate to think of what one would feel like after having a few of them. It was interesting to see who had had a few too many Painkillers as they were not looking too good and they had to get back onto their boats. I would hate to be in their shoes.

White Bay is a beautiful beach despite the chaos. We spent about 2 hours there enjoying the surroundings before heading back to the boat as we had made reservations for dinner at Foxy’s.

We actually meet Foxy himself who is quite a legend in his own right. A very astute business man who now enjoys his success and makes an appearance most afternoons, to play his guitar.

Our meal at Foxy’s was equally as enjoyable and very tasty!

Wednesday morning we thought we would head across to Cane Garden Bay which is on the northern side of Tortola.

Tortola is the largest of the four main islands and is the centre of the territory’s trade, commerce and government. It has the highest point in the BVI’s – Sage Mountain (1,710 ft)

On our way to Cane Garden Bay, we passed Sandy Cay which is the BVI’s newest National Park and was donated to the National Parks Trust of the Virgin Islands by the estate of the late Laurance Rockefeller who in the 1950’s bought large tracts of land in St John, Tortola and Virgin Gorda. He was committed to nature conservation and in 1956, donated 5,000 acres to help form the Virgin Islands National Park – a bit of useless information that I read in the Welcome magazine.

Cane Garden Bay is also known for its boutique hotels, many beach bars and restaurants, Callwood’s Distillery and of course its lovely white sandy beach.

Once again, we had to take a mooring ball – what has happened - the places to anchor have been reduced or disappeared completely and have been replaced with mooring balls. Some would argue that it is to help save the coral reefs from being destroyed due to reckless anchoring from boat owners, while others would say it is a money making racket to put as many yachts/boats in an area and then charge $30 a day for a mooring ball! The methods of anchoring is a hot topic of debate between yachties. Some people are blissfully unaware of the requirements for anchoring successfully.

The BVI’s rely on tourism and boat chartering is a huge part of this. I have read that it has reached saturation point and I can see why AND we are NOT in the peak season. In fact we are in the off season. I thought the Bahamas were busy but WOW there are yachts and boats EVERYWHERE!!!

There appears to be a bit of animosity between the boat chartering captains who are often referred to as “Credit card captains” and cruisers/ salty sailors – Mel and I would fall into this category as we own our own boat therefore – generally speaking – tend to take a little more care when it comes to anchoring, etc.

We use an app called Active Captain – it gives us details and other people’s opinions on places to anchor, moor, visit – it is just a good, reliable and up to date point of reference. On Active Captain, you get the impression that there is animosity out there between the various “Captains”.

Back to Cane Garden Bay - after we had tied up onto the mooring ball, we went for a walk along Cane Garden Bay.

 The beach became extremely busy – we found out that a cruise ship had just come in. One of the day excursions for the people on the cruise ship was to visit Cane Garden Bay.

Mel and I walked along the main street and came across the Green VI Glass Studio where we saw glass blowing (in this heat!!!). The pieces are made from locally recycled glass. We also passed the Callwood Rum Distillery.

Callwood Rum Distillery is the oldest distillery in the Caribbean. It was originally built by and Englishman and bought by the Callwood family over 200 years ago. It is still in continuous use. The original rum making process still takes place – the sugar cane is grown by the members of the Callwood family, it is pressed and fermented, distilled and bottled all on the premises.

We went into the Distillery to have a look and a taste. I didn’t enjoy the tasting but Mel certainly did.

That afternoon we potted around on the yacht.

Thursday, we decided to sail – yes sail to Soper’s Hole at West End – Tortola. The distances in the BVI’s are not great as our sail to Soper’s Hole was only 5nm. It was a good and enjoyable sail.

Soper’s Hole was the first settlement on Tortola and was used in the 1600’s by pirates to repair vessels and to stock up on water and food.

Soper’s Hole has no beach but is one of those places in the BVI’s where you have to stop and enjoy Harbour Town, Pusser’s and the many other places to have a drink or a bite to eat.

Many of the houses/buildings in the BVI’s are painted in bright colours – it is lovely to see. They

even paint their rooves and pink is quite a popular colour.

One thing Mel and I have noticed is in the BVI’s, other than the sailing, it is all about eating out and places to have a drink. It is very sociable (and expensive) especially if you are on a cruising budget like most cruisers are.

Friday morning we had a great breakfast at “D’ Best Coffee” – they had free WiFI but it was so slow! We couldn’t do much!! It can be so frustrating (I know the photos from last week’s update – Week 22 - didn’t all appear – I will sort that out as soon as we have reliable internet)

Later that morning we thought we would sail to Norman Island as we had been told it was lovely so off we went. We couldn’t sail as Norman Island was SE and the wind was blowing from the SE so we had to motor directly into the wind (we could have zig-zagged our way by sail, but with the Caribbean 2-step, it’s not worth the trouble) . It took us forever but we eventually got there and once again we had to take a mooring ball.

Norman Island is often referred to by the locals as “Treasure Island” as there are many stories of buried treasure by pirates around and on the island. It is said that Robert Lewis Stevenson based his book “Treasure Island” on Norman Island although the island apparently is named after a pirate.

The main mooring area is in The Bight where you can find Willy T – renowned for many a wild night had by lots of people who have payed Willy T a visit. Willy T (William Thorton) is a floating restaurant/bar.

We dinghied around the Bight, Mel went snorkelling while I enjoyed just bobbing on the dinghy and watching the bird life.

We visited the Billy Bones Beach Bar and the Pirates Bight – both restaurants/bars.

A very popular snorkelling sight called the Indians, is located just outside The Bight off Norman

Island. There are only 10 free mooring balls available for a limited time, so we thought on our way out of Norman Island we would stop off at the Indians.

Saturday morning (Happy 75^th Birthday to my dear Dad!!) we had a late start to the day as we knew we would be sailing across Sir Francis Drake Channel back to Tortola to Road Town and the wind was good for sailing the 7nm.

We sailed past the Indians and was lucky to get a mooring ball so off we went snorkelling.

It was absolutely beautiful!!! So many fish and different types of coral from brain coral to plate corals, staghorn corals, organ pipe corals and several soft corals plus some beautiful fans. We saw parrot fish - the blue rainbow coloured ones and one I hadn’t seen before which Mel told me was called the pineapple fish – also from the parrot fish family.

We stayed at the Indians for about an hour as that is really all the time you are allowed to spend and off we went to Road Town, the capital of the BVI’s on Tortola.

It is the main harbour were all the cruise liners come and it is obviously a very busy harbour. Once again there was very limited space to anchor but we found a space although later that evening we tried to re-anchor but eventually took a mooring ball as the wind shifted and we were pretty close to another boat.

Here we are at the end of Week 23, in Road Town, Tortola, in the BVI’s on a rather rolly and noisy mooring. We intend staying here for two nights as I am keen to visit the Botanical Gardens in Road Town. We are not sure where we are heading to next although all we know is we will be heading further east up the BVI chain towards Virgin Gorda to the Bitter End or Leverick Bay. This is where we will exit the BVI’s before crossing over to St Martins where hopefully all our easting will be over and we will be heading down the Leeward Islands.

 Sending lots of love

Captain Mel and Admiral Caryn/xx

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 22 May 11 - 17 2014

In Bruce Van Sant’s book – “The Gentleman’s Guide to Passages South” he mentions the Caribbean two step – two steps forward and one step back. This occurs mainly in shallow areas (anything less than 30m) when the wind creates a chop on the water over the normal swell. When the swell and the chop join forces, they meet up and it appears as if you are actually going backwards. It literally kills your speed. We experienced this on our “sail” to Culebra from Fajardo on Wednesday. More details later……

Sunday morning we thought we could venture out to El Yunque National Forest but once again the heavens opened. We looked at the weather for the following week and decided that Monday would not be a very good day to leave Sunbay Marine and head east to Culebra as the winds would be strong and on the nose – it wouldn’t be fun!

Monday morning we made our way to the entrance and visitors centre of the El Yunque National Forest, only to be told that the Forest was closed due to the amount of rain the forest had experienced and the many trails and walks were all closed as it was far too dangerous. Pity!! The only trail that was open was the one around the visitors centre – that

was about a 20 -25 mins walk so off we went. It was quite beautiful!

The El Yunque National Forest is approximately 114sq-km and was formally known as the Caribbean National Forest. It is the only tropical rainforest within the U.S National Park system and it ranges in height from 9m at its base to 1,077m at the top of Cerro El Torro. Various ecosystems are found within the forest ranging from high mountain cloud forest and dwarf forest on the highest slopes; (Information taken from the DK Eyewitness Travel – Caribbean)

The visitors centre had many exhibitions with a variety of information about the El Yunque Forest – the following information is from one of the many displays.

“The Tainos believed that the god Yocahu lived in El Yunque. Some people think that “yunque” comes from the Taino word “yuke” which means mountain; others believe it derives from the Spanish word for anvil, El Yunque’s distinctive shape from the north. African slaves called it “Furidi” meaning “mountain in white cloud” in Yoruba language.”

There were some beautiful orchids, ferns, mosses and mushrooms. See photos below.

There were extremely tall ferns which the Tainos Indians used the hollow tree trunks to carry hot coals from one campsite to the next…..  a bit of useless information…..

After our walk, we decided to go for a drive to see just how far up the mountain we could get – well not very far if you took the main road through the forest. We saw quite a few cars turning off down

another road so off we went to investigate.

It was a very narrow road* and you could see the effects of the rain from the previous days but the water falls along the side of the road were absolutely beautiful.

We stopped off to have a look at the main river that runs through the forest and saw quite a few people swimming.

We were making our way back “home”, when we were stopped and told if we wanted to get
on to the main highway (PR3), we had to go another way through the forest and over the many hills. In the morning on our way to the forest we noticed that there were many trucks and people around this intersection. Now this intersection had been totally 

closed and no one was allowed through.

We were give two options, the 883 or the 886 or something or other as I can’t quite remember – anyway so off we went.

We actually went along the same road* we had just been on, so we had the opportunity to see the lovely waterfalls once again.

Of course Mel would take the more adventurous route…. It was much more interesting than the route everyone else was taking but at times I was concerned we wouldn’t be able to dodge the vegetation that was on the road and it was much narrower than the other roads.

The road went up and down and around – the vegetation changing all the time. It was quite beautiful despite me being a worry wart that we may not see civilisation again.

We were going to leave Fajardo and Sunbay marina on Tuesday but the wind was howling from the east so we spent another day at the marina.  I worked on some of the courtesy flags we would need as we make our way down the Leeward and Windward Islands and Mel worked on the water maker - which is now producing water for us. Thank goodness!!!

 Wednesday looked, from the marina, to be a good day to head to Culebra …. Well how wrong can one get!!

What an awful sail!! Well we didn’t sail we motor-sailed and even then we felt as if we were getting nowhere. Lesson learnt… if you are doing the Caribbean two step, turn back and wait out for another day to sail. What should have taken us 4 hours at the most took us         7 1/2 hours!!!  I was constantly asking for some divine intervention as I wished I could have run on water either back to Fajardo or to Culebra. It was absolutely dreadful and I was petrified! Never again - I have said to Mel otherwise he can find another sailing partner!! We analysed what we did wrong – we didn’t interpret the weather forecast for this area correctly. We are having to learn and adjust to a whole different weather pattern now that we are approaching the Leeward Islands.

We arrived at the main harbour entrance (Ensenada Honda) of Culebra and were grateful for the calm waters. We were anchored just off Dewey - the town centre in Ensenada Honda by 3.00pm and collapsed – we were exhausted! After a little snooze to refresh ourselves, we took the limo down and headed for town to have a walk around and to get our land legs back.

There is a restaurant called the Dinghy Dock where we tied up the dinghy, had a drink (some interesting characters around) then walked around the town centre.

Culebra, like Vieques and 24 other isles, form part of the Spanish Virgin archipelago surrounding Puerto Rico.

Culebra has a National Wildlife refuge where there are many rare wildlife species. Culebra also boasts having one of the best beaches in the world – Playa (Beach) Flamenco.

It is believed Christopher Columbus (the first European) came here in his second voyage in 1493. When the island was under Spanish control it was inhabited by pirates, fishermen and sailors. Nowadays it is inhabited by – to quote from “The Yachtsman’s Guide to the Virgin Islands” – “the attitude is live-and-let-live, friendly, low keyed and reserved. There are the usual harmless eccentrics who gravitate to islands, some zealous disciples of the sixties back to earth life style and some of them delightfully uncategorized.”

While we were having our drink at the Dinghy Dock, we saw quite a few of these characters - Long beards, hippy type attire. In fact we were convinced one of these colourful and interesting characters was ZZ-Top himself!

A bit of history… Culebra in 1902 was incorporated as part of Vieques. President Theodore Roosevelt established the Culebra Naval Reservation. In 1939, the US Navy used Culebra, along with Vieuqes, as a gunnery and bombing practise site in preparation for their participation in WWII. This continued after WWII.

In 1971, the Culebrans started a protest for the removal of the US. Navy. This was known as the Navy- Culebran protests and it lasted four years, until 1975, when the gunnery was moved to Vieques.

On the charts there are areas indicating where you are advised not to do any trawling or anchoring as these are the areas where the practise sites used to be.

Thursday we went into town and back to the Dinghy Dock for dinner where the usual group of interesting looking people were gathered. The Dinghy Docks serves great grouper and tuna.

Friday was when we planned to go to Playa (Beach) Flamenco to see if it was as great as all the books were saying but not before we had to deal with our stowaway!

While we were having our breakfast – we usually sit up in the cockpit – Mel noticed there was quite a big iguana on our dinghy! We could not think of how it came to be on our dinghy as we were quite a way from the shore and it could not have swam that distance. The only logical explanation was that it climbed into our dinghy while we were having dinner at the Dinghy Dock the previous evening AND had been in the dinghy when Mel and I were making our way back to the boat AND had been there the whole night!

When Mel got into the dinghy as he was going to take it to shore, it jumped into the water, and floated/swam around our boat. When it reached the back of the boat, it attempted to climb up the ladder as it was quite exhausted from its “swim” around the boat. Mel moved the front of the dinghy under it, so it could climb back onto the dinghy while he could get to the back of the dinghy and start the engine to take it back to shore, which he did. Mel said that as soon as he was quite close to the bushes, it jumped off the dinghy and “ran” into them. Shame poor ugly thing!

 

Back to Friday…. We put our bikes into the dinghy and off we went to Playa Flamenco. WOW!!! What an absolutely stunning beach!!! It lived up to its reputation.

We have never seen such a long expanse of stunning white beach, with clear turquoise waters in all our travels and without sounding smug, Mel and I have seen some beautiful beaches.

The temperature of the water was ideal – well for me, who struggles to stay in the water for very long as I do get cold very quickly.

There are places to snorkel – Mel went out quite far as he usually does, while I stayed close to the shore and saw a few interesting fish and corals.

We stayed there for most of the day before riding back to where we had tied up the dinghy and then back to the boat.

Saturday, we were tempted to go back to Playa Flamenco but thought we would venture to another part of this lovely island.

Once again, we got the bikes out and cycled to Playa Melones which forms part of the Nature reserve and where there is a huge turtle breeding area.

The waters were stunning once again but the beach was very small and there was hardly any sand, just dead coral.

Mel snorkelled and noticed that there had been lots of damage done to the coral but there were signs of recovery. I read that the area had once been used as target practice by the US.

We will be “checking out” of Puerto Rico Sunday morning (18th) as we plan to make our way to the BVI’s the next day. We are not going to the US Virgin Islands as the entry requirements for us are always an issue – despite us having a US cruising permit etc. – there is always some red tape.

So here we are at the end of Week 22, anchored off the lovely island of Culebra.

Sending lots of love to you all

Captain Mel and Admiral Caryn/xxx